


Silhouette

by typhe



Category: Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey
Genre: LHM, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-11-23 10:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/typhe/pseuds/typhe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vanyel has a close call with destiny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Silhouette

Vanyel had crossed the bridge too fast.

He hadn't been thinking hard enough, and now he felt like the urgency of his footsteps must have rattled its way to every corner of Companion's Field. He was getting careless - _maybe because nothing's gone wrong for us yet. What if it's only a matter of time?_ He swallowed hard and forced himself to slow down; a sly glance across the river revealed only two other people, their purposes unknowable, but both of them seemed to be heading away from him. And there was no one on this side of the bank. Maybe no one had seen him half-running across the river towards Tylendel. Maybe.

He sighed, affected his most leisurely stroll, and made his way uphill in the wrong direction. He felt like he ought to make an even more cautious approach than he usually did, not that it would erase any damage done by his lapse of focus. He was almost at the peak of the shallow ridge now, and he dared another look to the river -

Something moved, close and at the edge of his vision. He froze. Someone.

He forced himself to take a few more steps, for all the world like a bored dancer, before looking around properly. No one was there.

 _But I saw someone..._ He blinked, his eyes roving over the gentle slope in the low-light, but there wasn't even so much as a tree to hide behind between him and the river. No one was there. He was alone in this part of the Field, excepting a lone Companion who appeared to be snuffling for wildflowers, watching him out of one blue eye.

He stepped forward without really thinking about it. She raised her head to him as he approached, and her eyelids twitched in what certainly appeared to be curiosity.

"Um," he said. Even after a couple of weeks of knowing Gala, he still felt a little silly talking to something that, well, looked entirely like a horse. But they were all highly intelligent, maybe more so than himself, and unlike their Chosen he didn't think they bore him any animosity. They'd seen him tramping furtively about their Field in 'Lendel's wake - it might just be wishful thinking, Vanyel very much wanting _someone_ outside Savil's quarters to know about him and Tylendel and not condemn what they had, but he felt like they at least humoured him as they saw him pass through their home almost every day. Maybe even welcomed the sight of his face. So perhaps this Companion wouldn't mind helping him. "Um, I thought I saw someone here just now." The blue eyes widened, and he felt _extremely_ silly. But he couldn't have made it up in his head, could he? "It was a woman with long dark hair, I'm almost sure," he added desperately - the only detail he'd discerned from that stooped figure he'd barely seen. "Did you see anyone go by?"

She blinked a few times, and tossed her head slightly before straightening to her full height. She was tall; taller than Gala, he thought, and if she'd been a horse he would have wagered she was several years older than Gala - too old to be yet to Choose, or to be bonded to a Trainee. _I wonder whose Companion she is?_ She stared down at him, and he wondered if she was trying to tell him to leave her the hell alone - but he didn't _feel_ like she was trying to drive him off.

She stepped closer, and then took a circling step around him.

He could feel her eyes passing over him, like the warmth of a torch. He didn't move - wasn't sure if he could have if he'd wanted to. He heard her footsteps close behind him. If he hadn't become used to being near Gala, he might have jumped hastily away from her legs - but she wasn't a horse, and whatever she was doing, it was something she meant to do. He felt oddly like he had when Savil had first glared at him. Like he was being measured. Only this time, it was by someone who wasn't frustrated with him for existing.

She stepped in front of him again and he looked into her eyes. Such a gentle shade of blue - he thought of everything Tylendel had said about being Chosen, what it had felt like and what it had meant to him, and he felt a hard lump forming in his throat. It must be wonderful to feel a bond like that. But Companions were never going to be more than a mystery to him no matter how hard he got stared at by one of them -

She shook her head, and skipped playfully around to his other side and nudged him, hard, with her nose. "Hey!"

She whickered, and it sounded like a laugh. He'd kept his balance only with a stumbling step - directly towards the grove Tylendel loved so much.

"Right. I get you. Um, thank you. I'll go now. I'm sorry I troubled you." He turned on the balls of his feet, picking a direction; not the one she'd indicated - she might be trying to tell him it would be safe to go straight there, but he didn't want to risk it. She nodded, and bent her front leg, with a bob not so unlike that of a courtier taking their leave, and he found himself smiling at her and meeting her eyes again.

She was -

He took a step back, not meaning to, clumsily dipped his own head in return and walked away as briskly as he felt he could passably get away with on an evening's promenade. He counted to a hundred before veering back towards his destination, hurry warring with his heightened fretfulness.

He was breathing heavily as he took the last steps into their grove, and he leaned one hand against a treetrunk, bowing his head. Tylendel was lying on the earth in front of him, stretched out on his stomach with his head resting on his folded arms; Gala was beside him, her nose against his neck. "And where have _you_ been?" 'Lendel sounded amused, mostly, but also a little worried.

How to even explain? "I met a Companion. She was walking all around me and looking at me..." He shook his head, still thoroughly confused by the encounter.

Tylendel chuckled. "Getting Chosen now, are you?"

" _Gods_ no, you of all people should know that. Even if I had Gifts, I'd be the awfullest Herald."

'Lendel stretched out a hand, and Vanyel walked across to take it, slowly allowing Tylendel to tug him down to his knees on the soft carpet of shed needles. "Who was it, anyway? Where were they?"

"Just up the bank from the riverside."

Tylendel glanced at Gala, and a look of surprise passed over his face, followed by a grin. "She thinks it was Yfandes - the one who won't Choose. Van, I do believe you might have just had a close call with destiny!"

Vanyel elbowed him in the ribs. "You're absurd," he replied, not entirely unappreciatively. Tylendel seemed quite keen to distract him from the strange meeting, but he couldn't just shake off that last look in her eyes. She wouldn't Choose? But how old was she? He thought of those jealous pangs he'd felt the first time he'd met Gala - what must it be like for Yfandes, seeing all those younger Companions out frolicking with their Chosen all day?

_She's lonely._

He curled against Tylendel, letting his lover wrap one strong arm about his shoulders, pulling him close, tempting him to forget all about her. Vanyel closed his eyes, and tried to let go of what he'd seen in her eyes.

_She's waiting._

_She doesn't care how long she has to wait._


End file.
